Donna's Blog Home

Friday, September 16, 2011

Guest Post and Giveaway - Kathleen McFall and Clark Hays - The Cowboy and the Vampire

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know all About You…

Or “How we came to love Vampires”

Cowboys are easy. I know where your mind went on that, but that’s not what we meant.

What we meant was that Clark, one-half of The Cowboy and the Vampire, is a genuine, duct-tape loving, cowboy-hat-wearing, knife-wielding, horse-riding, hates-the-phone, aw-shucks Cowboy. (He’s also a vegetarian, a poet and an awesome if reluctant dancer, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.) From the perspective of our writing, this life-story meant that we were happily and easily able to meet that sage advice of “write-what-you-know.” Know your cowboy character? Check.

But Vampires?

We’ve written on this blog tour elsewhere about how we came to match a cowboy with a Vampire in this opposites-attract love story. In a nutshell, it was modeled after our own romance. Clark, the cowboy, felt like his life’s blood was being sucked out of him by Kathleen, the, um, well not Vampire, but what she represented as the “city-girl.”

As writers, we decided to embrace our cultures-clashing situation and just run with it. If we could make it as co-novelists, marriage would be easy, right?

But first, the need to understand real Vampires. That took some serious research. Off we went. To our local libraries. To rare book rooms. To Wikipedia (of course) and Vampire parties. We ate lots of popcorn while we watched tons of movies, from Nosferatu all the way up to 30 Days of Night. Academic lectures. Halloween dress-up. Art shows (maybe Edward Munch and Blinky Palermo were Vampires?). Even once to the U.S. Library of Congress where we rummaged through dusty book stacks with almost religious fervor (contact us if you need any source material!).

What did we uncover?

It’s so MUCH bigger than Dracula. Dracula is a tiny blip on a centuries-old collection of myths, historical anecdotes, suppositions and wishful lies about the undead.

Vampirism is an anti-religion. Vampirism is humanity’s attempt to explain away evil and human tragedy. If you can’t understand why your baby died in the bubonic plague, chalk it up to Vampirism. Want to have mad sex in the Victorian era without being caught? Accuse a Vampire of ravaging you (rather than naming your hot uncle). You’re a bad farmer, the entire crop is failing and your family will not make it through the winter? Blame it on dead grandpa. Damn, lo and behold when you open his coffin, there’s scratch marks on the wood because he must be undead and poisoning the crops at night (or maybe, he was buried alive and trying desperately to claw his way out…so sad, but that happened a lot).

And then there’s Lazarus, raised from the dead by Jesus just to hang out, not really for any other identified purpose. That act really got us thinking ... where did Vampires come from? They’ve been around forever, literally, but why was there no creation story?

That seemed an egregious oversight in Vampire lore. We decided to change it. And while we were at it, why not throw in a new angle from evolutionary biology?

Our Vampires don’t have fangs, but they are stronger than humans and harder to kill. At dawn, they die completely and are reborn when the sun goes down. That means they have near death experiences every morning and have a shared, external consciousness.

There are two distinct Vampire lines: the Messianic line, a caste of nobles dating back to the early days of Christianity, and the less refined Reptilian line. The Messianic Vampire bloodline is genetically dormant — humans who carry it must be “turned” by Vampires with a unique power. The Messianic Vampires are guided by a biblical coda requiring them to feed only on evil humans and thus help contain and eliminate evil in the world. They are, by default, the Illuminati. The Reptilians, by contrast, reproduce the old fashioned way and have no biblical moral constraints. Dating back to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, they feed on whomever they wish, whenever they wish and live in a glorious world of immediately-satiated desires.

We pit this new Vampire nation an myth against the familiar myths of our cowboy.

Like we said, it’s a love story. From a slightly different, undead and terrifying angle.

About the authors:
Kathleen McFall was born and raised in the heart of Washington, DC, and her experiences there, from protests and riots to hanging out in the corridors of the Supreme Court (located next to the family church, she skipped church a lot) and wandering around the Capitol, filled her sense of place with history and granite. A geologist by training, she excelled in scientific and non-fiction writing, translating complex scientific papers into engaging articles. Those skills are now focused on paranormal fiction. An avid reader, she spends every spare moment working with Clark Hays on their next book Blood and Whiskey.

Clark Hays was born in Texas and grew up in Scotland and then Montana where he was raised on a working ranch doing all the expected cowboy things — riding, roping, hunting, branding cattle and writing poetry. The openness of the landscape and the solitude (the nearest neighbor was five miles away, the nearest town – 2,500 people – was 30 miles away) provided a constant source of inspiration, very little distractions and a chance to really be alone with his thoughts. In this solitude, he found his calling — writing — early. He’s currently working on Blood and Whiskey with Kathleen McFall.

Learn more:www.cowboyandvampire.com
www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire

And check out the novella Red Winter, by Clark Hays, edited by Kathleen McFall, released exclusively as an e-book in August. What happens when the first Vampire makes it to the Old West in 1890?

About the book:

The Cowboy and the Vampire

By Clark Hayes and Kathleen McFall

Paperback: 408 pages

Publisher: MIDNIGHT INK Release Date: October 8, 2010

ISBN-10: 0738721611

ISBN-13: 978-0738721613

Reporter Lizzie Vaughan doesn’t realize it, but she has 2,000 years of royal Vampiric blood coursing through her veins. Neither she nor Tucker, her cowboy lover, has any idea that Julius, the leader of the undead, has a diabolical plan to reign over darkness for all eternity—with Lizzie at his side.

Lizzie battles for her life—and her soul—as she and Tucker find themselves caught up in a vampire war, pursued by hordes of Julius’ maniacal, bloodthirsty followers.

Who will be left standing when the sun rises?

“Deliciously dark.”—BOOKLIST

Learn more at http://cowboyandvampire.com/ and www.facebook.com/cowboyandvampire

Book trailer on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0hig70b-2U&feature=youtu.be

Giveaway Details:

Giveaways include

1 signed first edition of the original publication from 1999

and 5 signed copies of the current paperback edition

Open to US Shipping

Winners will be chosen from all of those who enter via the form,

leave comments at tour stops for bonus entries you can also enter

at each tour stop.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Guest Post and Giveaway - E.B. Walter - Mine Until Dawn

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to stop by your site on the blog tour for MINE UNTIL DAWN, book 2 of the FITZGERALD FAMILY series.

Today I want to share with you something I learned the last few months. If you’re a writer, this should be beneficial to you. If you’re a reader…well, you just never know. In every reader is a potential writer.

Anyway, have you ever read a kindle e-book and seen paragraphs off and some lumped together? Do these formatting errors annoy you? If you, so read on.

FORMATTING YOUR BOOK FOR KINDLE:

Before you start formatting, download mobipocket Creator and Mobipocket Reader. They’re free online.
Assuming you have completed your WIP, open it on Windows.
Go to Edit on your menu and click Select All
Go to the top where you have your menu again, click on Format then click on styles and formatting.
On the left side of the screen, a window will open. You’ll see every format you’ve used.
At the top of the list is clear formatting. Click on it.
All your work will align at the margin, including the title. All italized works will also become unitalized.
Next, open Notepad. I believe this comes with every Dell computer.
Select all your WIP, or if you testing this on a chapter, select all and copy/cut. Paste it on notepad and save it as a .txt.
Now back to word, open a blank document.
Go to Format and click of Paragraph. Here’s where you set what you want.
Make sure the alignment is left. Indentation and Spacing are set to zero.
Under Special is a drop box. Click on it and select First Line. Set it to 0.5
Under Line Spacing is another drop box. Select Exactly. Then on the right, set the spacing at 25.
Now go back to your document on the notepad, select all and copy it.
Paste it on the new document.
If you click on formatting now, all you’ll see are Clear formatting, first line, Heading 1, 2, 3, and normal.
Now for the fun part.
Make sure you have your STANDARD menu up. If not, right click on the side and select it
Click on the tab button…it looks like a nine or lower case q with circle black.
The tab will appear all over your WIP every where you hit the space bar. Leave it on.
Check where the chapters ends and the next chapter begin. If you see …………pagebreak……, delete it. It is better to put your cursor at the beginning of your next chapter and just delete until the pagebreak is deleted. Do this throughout the WIP.
Now go back to where your chapter 1 ends and the beginning of chapter 2. Place your cursor next to chapter 2, right before C begins.
Go to your menu and click on insert. Under it is Break. Go to SECTION BREAK TYPES and click on NEXT PAGE
Now you will see two dots……….sectionbreak(nextpage)………..
Do this at the beginning of all chapters.
If you had deeper POV italized, go over your entire manuscript, highlight and italize them.
If you want your chapter titles centered, go over your WIP, highlight and click center on the formatting menu.
Once you’re done, go over your WIP and make sure ALL pagebreaks were deleted and replaced with section break. Then click the tab on your standard menu to get rid of the tab/space-bar sign.
For the first few pages of the book, just get a copy of an e-book and see how it is formatted.
Go to your chapter 1 and place the cursor next to C. Insert a sectionbreak (nextpage) there so you have your first page. Write your title, name and publisher on that first page, insert a sectionbreak (next page), then move on to disclaimer and ISBN and copyright, then Acknowledgement and so on.
I think Kindle is very iffy about accepting fonts larger than 16 and will automatically reduce any title fonts to 16. The same for fancy fonts. Stay with Times New Roman
NOW YOU ARE READY TO PUBLISH
Open Mobipocket Creator.
In the middle is Import From Existing File
Click on MS Word Document
You’ll see the browser button Choose your file and press import
It should load to 100% and move to the next window.
You’ll see your file in the middle of that window. On the left is a red book. Under it is view.
Under view is Publication file. Next is cover image.
Click on cover image.
Upload your cover image. The dimensions should be at least 600 by 800. If it is smaller, Mobipocket will tell you it is small when it starts to build your book.
A section of the cover will show because it is pretty big. Click update.
Up on the menu, to the left, is BUILD. It is between Files and Settings.
Click on it. The window that pops, click on BUILD.
If the cover is the right size, it should go smoothly to 100%.
Next window will have BUILD FINISHED and the choice to preview it.
NOW YOU CAN TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR BOOK
Since you already have Mobipocket Reader for PC. Select it and click OK.
Mobipocket reader loads up and the first thing you’ll see is your cover. You can now read your book. It is saved in various formats on your Publication folder, but .prc is the one you upload on KDP.

Any questions?

Mine Until Dawn

By Ednah Walters

July 20 Firetrail Publishing

http://www.firetrailpublishing.com

Chick Lit Romance with an element of suspense

BLURB MINE UNTIL DAWN:

She's armed with a new attitude and a kick-ass wardrobe....

By age twenty-eight, art historian Jade Fitzgerald has had a marriage from hell and an equally nasty divorce, worked hard to control her weight and her arrhythmia. The last thing she needs is another man messing with her head or shooting her heartbeat off course. That is exactly what she gets when an aloof and mysterious stranger storms into her life.

He's cynical and don’t take crap from anyone....

Former investigative reporter Vince Knight is on a quest to recover a priceless, ancient Mayan artifact, which he believes Jade’s mother stole. He’s skilled at gathering information while remaining emotionally detached, until he meets Jade. The voluptuous woman stirs in him a hunger he hasn’t felt in a long time and a protectiveness he can’t explain.

Neither of them expects passion to flare so fast or danger to dodge their footsteps. To defeat a ruthless art collector with a twisted agenda, Jade and Vince must learn to trust each other and embrace their growing feelings.

Until, an insane man plots to add Jade to his collection of beautiful and rare things.

EXCERPT:

Jade eased her car into an empty parking space outside the Palace and switched off the engine. A groan escaped her when she caught a glimpse of the time. Three minutes late and counting. That was what she got for taking a little extra time to deck her body and paint herself like a geisha. Granted she had a party to go to after their meeting. Still, to make Vince Knight choke on his words would be an added bonus.

I haven’t changed, my butt.

She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and studied her face in the rear view mirror. The make-up and pinned-up hair with a few tendrils framing her face couldn’t be labeled overkill. She tilted the mirror to check the enticing valley created by the black bustier she’d worn under her matching spaghetti-strapped dress. Now that sight could be classified as a look-and-drool display.

Jade picked up her black purse and sheer shawl then stepped out of her car and locked it. She smoothed the silk dress down over her hips. A chuckle escaped her. Her behind had its own agenda and continued to resist any attempts to slim it down, but she was learning to live with it.

Jade took several steps, glanced down and grimaced. Six-inches of pure hell. She was a sucker for beautiful shoes, but the look on Vince’s face when he saw her in them would be worth it.

Two men exited the hotel as she approached the entrance and froze at seeing her, eyes wide with appreciation. A drawn out ‘damn’ brought a quick smile to her lips. That was all the encouragement she needed to work the black drop-waist dress with asymmetrical hem.

Her senses thrummed with anticipation as she glided through the hotel doors. Jade gave the busy foyer a sweeping glance. When her gaze locked on Vince, her heart started a rickety shuffle and her stomach tilted.

This was bad. She wasn’t within sniffing distance of the man and her body was already betraying her. Even in plain jeans and a T-shirt, he stood out. She studied his tall, built body as he leaned against the front desk. His tanned skin contrasted with his white T-shirt in an attractive way, his teeth flashing as he spoke with one of the managers.

It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t even her type. She avoided the silent, brooding, emotionally unavailable types like the plague. They were too difficult to understand and complicated. On the other hand, where had an outgoing man gotten her? A bad marriage and doubts about her sensuality.

As though he felt her gaze, Vince turned.

She stopped breathing, a stupid thing to do. He gave her a slow appraisal, his gaze lingering on her chest before colliding with hers.

Expression on his face? Cool. Unimpressed.

Air left her lungs in an unsteady rush. She twisted her lips into what she hoped resembled a smile as she started across the room. All that time spent putting her war paint on wasted. How could he maintain that stone-cold soberness all the time? Vince had to be made of ice, and served her right for trying to get a rise out of him.

Maybe that was the problem. His rigid control and aloofness made her want to do or say something to rattle his cage. His lack of interest in her was a definite challenge. Maybe there was some truth to the lure of the unattainable. Vince Knight, without trying, fascinated her.

Vince approached with the loose-hipped predatory stride of a jungle cat, sending a whoosh of anticipation through her. Feeling a little light-headed, Jade hoped she didn’t totter on her high stilettos.

“Sorry, I’m late,” she said, hating the breathlessness in her voice.

“No problem. You’re here now.” He gave her another cool once-over without making a comment and lifted a duffel bag she didn’t notice he was carrying. “I need to show you something.”

Her gaze moved from the bag to his face. “What is it?

“Let’s find a place to sit first.” His dark gaze swept the foyer as though cataloguing faces. She wasn’t sure whether it was caution or paranoia.

She trailed his gaze. “Is everything okay?”

“No.”

AMAZON:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=ednah+walters&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Aednah+walters&ajr=0

BARNES & NOBLES:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/ednah-walters

SMASHWORDS: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/70400

About Ednah Walters:

I grew up reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries, before I graduated to Mills & Boons (starting with Janet Daily's Shutter the Sky) and the rest is history.

I enjoy good love stories, tingly mysteries and wondrous adventures. When I finished college and decided to be a stay-at-home mother, I devoured books like they were going out of production, until reading just wasn't enough. So I started to write.

I've written picture books, contemporary and romantic suspense, biracial/multicultural books, and finally YA fantasy. AWAKENED is the first YA book in The Guardian Legacy series. It was released in September 2010. BETRAYED, book 2 in the series, will be out August 1^st 2011. In my adult romance series, SLOW BURN, book 1 of the Fitzgeralds, was out May 1^st 2011, MINE UNIL DAWN is due mid July. Book 3, KISS ME CRAZY, a contemporary romance, is with my editor. I'm presently working on book 4, Faith Fitzgerald’s story and book 3 of my YA Guardian Legacy series.

When I'm not writing, I do things with my family, five children or my darling husband of 19 years. I live in a picturesque valley in Utah, the setting for my YA series.

http://www.ednahwalters.com/

http://enwalters.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000535104042

http://twitter.com/#!/ednahwalters

http://www.youtube.com/user/ednahwalters?feature=mhsn

http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/EdnahWalters

Giveaway Details:

Contest begins September 1st and ends on the 21st.
The finale is happening at Ednah's blog, where you will win goodies.
3 winners will be chosen at random at the end of the tour.
Winners will be announced on 22nd.

Winners will get:

1. A signed copy of Mine Until Dawn (print)

2. Slow Burn tote bag

3. Slow Burn mousepad

4. Slow Burn Bookmarks.

Contest is International

TO ENTER:

1. You must comment on the participating blogs first

2. Tweet about the post on participating blogs

3. Follow Ednah's blog when you get there.

4. Leave Ednah a comment on her blog at

http://enwalters.blogspot.com/2011/08/mine-until-dawn-tour-finale-giveaway.html

Monday, September 12, 2011

Guest Post - Joseph Devon

An Interview with Matthew from Probability Angels and Persistent Illusions

Please tell your story twitter style, 140 characters or less.

Um...okay wait. Let me think about that. (Matthew whispers to himself, counting out words on his fingertips) Let’s try this: “Died for love. Chose to stay on earth after death to do some good. Was taught by Epp to control the universe. All hell broke loose, zombies.”

What is the one thing you wish you knew before you made your choice to stay on earth after death?

How hard the work would be. Making that choice I had Epp, my mentor, describing the role I could take on as a tester and he made it sound great. We take the worst things the universe throws at you humans and get you to turn them into triumphs. Beethoven’s deafness and all that. Epp made it sound great but the burden is heavier than I ever expected.

What to you is the best part of being a tester and what is the part you wouldn’t mind giving up?

There are *SO* many cool things I can do. I mean we can control atoms or some shit like that, I don’t quite get it, but I can do it. And everyone’s always telling me to study study study and train train train and I’ll get better. But I mean I can light one of my cigars just by puffing on it. How cool is that? And I can zip off to the Bahamas in an instant. It’s pretty neat.

As far as giving something up? That would be the hurt. See, all of us testers died in this weirdly specific way. Not all at once, of course, but all of our deaths revolved around protecting loved ones, and part of the deal is that those loved ones...I don’t know. They can hurt us. It’s been two thousand years since Epp died and he still has to be careful when he thinks about his loved ones because the pain of missing them can drag the most powerful tester into the graveyard.

What city would you love to spend some time in as a tester?

I haven’t been to South America much yet. I think I’d like to roam those streets as a ghost. That’d be fun. Romania, on the other hand, I think I’m done with.

Vampires, Shifters, Zombies, Angels - who wins the final ultimate battle?

(Matthew shifts uncomfortably) I don’t know. I mean, most of those terms are kind of describing us. See it’s a rule of thumb that if we do something that’s just too difficult for a human mind to comprehend, like if I’m having a conversation with you and then I, say, jump off to the Bahamas, your brain won’t be able to make sense of my disappearance so you’ll come up with some sort of explanation. I have no real proof but I’m pretty sure that most of those things, Vampires, Shifters, Angels, those are all explanations you humans have come up to explain one of us doing something unexplainable. Except zombies. Zombies are very real. Zombies are what my kind turns into if they don’t put in their work. If we don’t push humans we rot away and eventually...well there’s a turning point there where we stop being a tester and turn into a cannibal. And, frankly, at the moment, us testers are at war with these rotted things. So, yeah, I’m rooting for us.

If you could witness any historical event past, present or future what would it be and why?

I’ve got a two-thousand year old mentor and a bunch of friends who are centuries old. You’d be surprised how many historical events are old hat for our kind. What I would have liked to see, though, was Epp’s life. I’d like to see Epp before he was a tester. I know he was a slave in Rome, but I think there’s more to it than that. And I’d like to meet his choices, the loved ones he died for. I’d like to meet the people that made a tester as powerful as Epp come into existance.

Anything else you would like to share today?

Nope. Just keep in mind, the next time life is kicking your ass, there might be one of us standing over you, just testing you to see if you’ll pull through and become a better person for it. I know it seems weird, and trust me it’s confusing from my end too, but know that we’re rooting for you.

Oh and if you’re ever on the Upper West Side in New York be sure and try one of the hot dogs at Gray’s Papaya.

I miss those.

To read more about Matthew check out Probability Angels and Persistent Illusions

Matthew Huntington's problems seem to keep growing. Not only is he seeing things in garbage cans but his mentor doesn't think he's working up to his full potential, his best friend can't offer any solace but drunken confusion and his wife is dying in Central Park. Of course, the fact that Matthew himself died over two decades ago isn't helping things.

In Probability Angels, we were introduced to the world of Matthew and Epp. Back then, Matthew thought he had his hands full just learning how to be an undead tester of humanity, but then Hector staged an uprising and everything Matthew thought he could take for granted fell apart. Yet, over the past few months, a strained peace has settled over his world and Matthew is starting to feel like he can finally get back to training at his usual New York haunts. However, things are more fragile than they appear. Nobody can see the stress lines already clawing away at the new peace. Nobody has guessed the toll that was taken on those at the forefront of their war. And, when a new tester wakes up with the power to possibly unravel the universe...well that's when things really start to get interesting. Come see how a zombie can protect and serve, a photographic memory can earn you a permanent place on Mount Everest, and a teenage drug addict can hold everyone's fate in her nail-bitten fingers.

About the Author:

Joseph Devon was born in New Jersey and has been a pioneer in the
field of self-publishing since his first book, The Letter. He is known
for his world-building literary style, instantly accessible characters
and poetic dialogue as well as the "26 Stories in 52 Weeks" writing
project from his website at JosephDevon.com.

Find Joseph on the web:
http://josephdevon.com
Twitter

Facebook

Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Qwillery: Interview with Michele Bardsley and Giveaway - Se...

The Qwillery: Interview with Michele Bardsley and Giveaway - Se...: Please welcome Michele Bardsley to The Qwillery. TQ : What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk? Michele : I don't re...

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Dark-Readers: Welcoming The Fall Giveaway

Dark-Readers: Welcoming The Fall Giveaway: Hey Guys! So as many of you know fall is coming and its getting darker and colder outside so us at Dark Readers thought why not giveaway so...

Friday, September 9, 2011

Review - In The Shadows

In the Shadows

By Julieanne Lynch

Published July 21st 2011

Strict Publishing International

ISBN 9780857791962

“In The Shadows”, the first of The Shadows trilogy, is an urban fantasy of vampires and the supernatural, and much, much more. In the shadows you will find lust and passion, battles for power and for blood, and death and fear around every corner. In the shadows you are carried away to an unknown future. Your destiny awaits, and you are no longer who you thought you were. You have a thirst, for blood perhaps, but a thirst for very much more than that.

Giselle was a normal girl with an attitude common to most girls of her age. Her family might not have been perfect (whose is?) but she loved them, and her future looked bright. She had an awesome best friend and a steady boyfriend, but how could she possibly have been so wrong about someone she loved? And how could she have been prepared for the darkness and for what she was to become?

*-*-*-*-*

My review:

This was really a stunning novel that I was not expecting when I started reading. Giselle has a normal life with her boyfriend who she loves and a great best friend that is always there for her. Until one day she gets an unexpected DVD and it all starts to fall apart.

So much happens in this story that is almost impossible to say more than what is above without spoilers. Once you think you have it figured out it completely changes on you. Like Giselle you really never know who to trust. And you have to keep reading to find out what couple possibly happen next. There are more twists and turns that at times are completely unexpected and really keep you guessing.

Julieanne is a great storyteller and has written a great new world in the paranormal realm that I am looking forward to reading more in. Once you start and enter her world you cant wait to find out more about it.

Guest Post and Giveaway - Julieanne Lynch - In The Shadows Blog Tour

The road to publishing is never easy and the constant stream of rejection is enough to make you second guess your career choice and hide under the biggest rock you can find. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the past year, is that after the first few rejections the sting doesn’t hurt as much.

Seriously!

I know it sounds crazy, but for some reason you become hardened and believe me in this industry you need a coat of armour as a first layer. But whilst it was initially hard work, it has been an overall experience which I’d gladly undertake again. I’ve learnt so much in a short period of time. I’ve learnt that life isn’t easy and you have to work for everything you desire and I hope that seeing me strive to see my dreams realised has had an impact on my own children’s dreams and aspirations.

I have been writing for a very long time, and only ever entered short pieces of fiction into contests and anthology calls. I had never really thought about going the whole journey and actually submit a completed novel to agents or publishers. That all changed in the December 2009, when I came across some old files of a piece of writing I had begun a few years earlier, but the idea was so ridiculous I thought I’d just walk away. But after reading the storyboard and the simplified notes I considered on a serious level that maybe I had something good to work with.

Of course, I always have this tendency to doubt my ideas and thought the genre was maybe overdone and clichéd and again decided that the time just was not right. But all that changed in May 2010, after finishing a series of vampire novels and I made the decision then and there, that now was indeed the time.

Within a twelve week period I had the first draft completed and then the dreaded edits and proof reading began. And might I just add, I hate editing. I am terrible and lazy when it comes to editing my own work and if I was rich enough, I’d have someone do it for me. But anyway, I gave my completed manuscripts to my two sisters to read, and then of course my husband. Whilst waiting on their verdict, I started penning queries and wrote my synopsis.

Having registered with Firstwriter.com, I put together a detailed list of reputable agents and publishers open to unsolicited submissions. Once my sisters got back to me and biting the nails clean off my fingertips, I was expecting harsh criticism, but it didn’t come. They loved it. They too are vampire fanatics and couldn’t compare it to anything they had read before and loved the unique twist that I had added.

So, in a sense they spurred me on and I didn’t hang about. By July 31st I was submitting to agents and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. Of course, the rejections came in, they hurt, and at times I cried and then one day I just thought, “to hell with them, I won’t give up” and I didn’t.

Finally in January 2011 I got my first break, and my book was published as a first edition in March 2011. Then in June 2011, another firm acquired the rights to my work, and it was a deal I couldn’t refuse and thus the second edition was born. The second and third books in the trilogy are due out in the coming months and I have secured publication for four more books next year.

I cannot say that it has been an easy journey, but it has been a learning curve the whole way. I have become more adapt at seeing my own faults as a writer and welcome the views of my readers whether they be good or bad. In general I am pretty calm and try not over analyse reviews and in most cases, I avoid reading them, but being a newbie in the industry it’s kind of hard not to.

Overall, I’d tell any aspiring author out there to never give up. If you are passionate and believe in your story, then you fight the elements that can knock you for six. Keep submitting, keep reading and keep writing. It’s what we do best.

About the Author:

Fiery Librarian Julieanne Lynch is an author of urban fantasy books for both adults and teens. Originally from Northern Ireland, Julieanne now lives in Ireland, where she works on her Shadows Trilogy and other series full-time. Before becoming a writer, she considered a few different career paths, a rock star being one of them. She studied English Literature and Creative Writing at The Open University, and considered journalism as a career path. However, she decided writing was the way for her and believes all of her education and reading prepared her for it.

An avid reader, Julieanne has always had an encompassing fascination with folklore. When not writing, she enjoys crime series such as Criminal Minds, CSI, NCIS and Cold Case, and loves anything with Vampires, listening to metal, meeting new people, drinking lots of green tea, and sharing her dreams with her children. She is a self-professed goth wanna-be,and is happy when left to write into the early hours of the morning.

Find Julieanne online:

http://www.julieannelynch.co.uk/

http://www.julieannelynch.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julieanne-Lynch/147566121974789